Aventis CropScience announces today the implementation of a reorganisation plan concerning a new management structure for its crop protection Research & Development, followed by a simplification of the R&D process during the next two years.

This is the second important step linked to the integration process and the reorganisation of the company's structure, started in June with the introduction of its new operations.

As innovation is key to the Company's future growth, it will become an integral part of the business organisation. The objective is to build a highly motivated and efficient R&D organisation with high networking capacity, well structured decision making processes and clearly defined responsibility and accountability. The new organisational structure and new operational rules are designed to achieve these goals.

The crop protection R&D will be completely integrated in the crop protection business. Its management will be the full responsibility of Bernard Leroux, who will be based in Frankfurt and will report to Bertrand Meheut, Member of the "Directoire" of Aventis CropScience. Based in Lyon, Jürgen Asshauer will be in charge of the strategic steering of Science and Technology at corporate level as CTO (Chief Technology Officer).

According to the plan, in Europe our crop protection R&D activities will be progressively grouped together in France and Germany.

The activities for the discovery of new molecules and formulations will be concentrated in Frankfurt, Germany, which will thus host the corresponding activities from Lyon-La Dargoire and Ongar, UK.

The crop protection development activities will be grouped together on the Lyon-Décines site (CRIT). Décines will thus progressively receive development activities transferred from Lyon-La Dargoire, from Frankfurt and from England (process chemistry from Hauxton and environmental chemistry from Ongar).

The Sophia Antipolis centre, France, specialising in toxicology, will remain an integral part of the R&D organisation.

The reorganisation and concentration process is planned to be accomplished by Summer 2002.

The present headcount in the R&D centres concerned is about 1200 employees. At this point in time, it is not possible to evaluate the precise impact of the reorganisation on headcount reductions.

Aventis CropScience is a major crop protection and crop production company which is also involved in top-ranking environmental and public health activities. Committed to developing sustainable agriculture worldwide, Aventis CropScience focuses on researching, developing and marketing innovative solutions that meet the needs of today’s farming - healthy crops, increased yields, improved crop and food quality - whilst constantly striving to meet the needs of the environment

With 1999 pro-forma sales of 4,061 million Euro, Aventis CropScience devotes over 10% of its turnover to the Research and Development of new chemicals, biotechnology and plant varieties. It employs about 15,300 people in more than 120 countries worldwide.

Aventis CropScience is part of the agricultural sector of Aventis, a world leader in Life Sciences.